Paid vs Free Forum Software

Is paid forum software a waste of time considering that a lot of the perks of paid software can be gotten for free via plugins? Of course, you might have to do some extra work to make forum modifications, but considering your not having to pay money, it might be worth the time. On the other hand, some might argue that time is money, or that they don't have the skills to modify a free forum. Another thing to consider is the design. However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so a lot of the paid software claims about beauty could be hype or a sales pitch.

If you are very familiar with the forum script and enjoy tweaking it yourself, then there are some free forum scripts that can work well. Some people will consider a forum running on a free script to be less than one running on a paid script, but if your forum is top notch, that will be negligible. I chose paid scripts because I no longer enjoy learning my way around scripts or codes, and just wanted something that would work, and someone I could turn to when they don't. Also, because free scripts are more freely available, I think that they are slightly more susceptible to hacking, which is not to say that you are safe with a paid script.

I think it comes down to personal choice and how much money you have or are willing to spend on the forum. If I had the money I would use IPB, but I don't. Another thing to look at would be whether or not you can get the customisations you want, how the community is.....for example I wouldn't pick a paid forum software where there was no community of enthusiastic themers and modders. That's just asking me to find outside help and pay for it (and technically it may not be the quality I would expect as the outside help might not know it as intimately as I would hope).

One thing I can say for certain is NEVER go for free hosting. You'll never be allowed off it and customisation is extremely limited. If you make it big you'll lose everything if you move off onto your own domain.

Depends what you need actually. If you're looking for something that is really professional, optimized and with great support behind your back then you should go for a paid software (but be aware that the prices are not that low, a good paid forum software can costs up to 30$) and especially if you are interesting in accessing maybe to their exclusive plugins. Otherwise if you haven't any money to spend on it and you're just ok with the fact that it's an easy to use and not really super high customizable then go for a free one.

A lot of easily uploadable themes exist for premium forums. That might be an advantage to choosing premium. However, MyBB is free and has many interesting and easily uploadable themes. Myself, I like phpBB, but uploading themes is a challenge. However, with a paid FTP solution, the job could be done faster.

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